The American Form of Government

Local, National, Politics, Virginia 1 Minute

This is an interesting video.

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Thoughts?

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13 thoughts on “The American Form of Government”

  1. I’m not sure what you found interesting about this. It’s just another right-wing rant that cherry picks language in the Constitution, which also includes the phrase “promote the general welfare.” But this interpretation is that the only role of government is to protect he rights of the people. That is patently false.

    1. Talk about cherry-picking words! The Constitution does not give Congress the power to “promote the general welfare,” but rather, “to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States….”

      The federal government’s job is to provide NOT for the general welfare of the people, but of the States.

  2. I found the video to be entirely accurate measured against history. The brief and bloody history of democracies has been well documented, and majority rule unfettered by the restraints of limited government powers has always led to financial collapse followed by totalitarianism in one form or another.

    I invite anyone to provide a contrary example in which a true democracy has lasted through two generations.

    The best statement I know of on the proper role of government comes from the Declaration of Independence:

    “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

    And again from Jefferson:

    “A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government . ”

    But then I’m sure Bob would just find Mr. Jefferson to be just another of those right wing kooks.

    1. Which is why Jefferson did not write the Constitution, which of course came years after the Declaration, when the young country decided how to govern itself, not just emancipate itself from Britain.

      And we’ve seen lately what happens when people are “free to regulate their own pursuits of industry.”

      1. Jefferson did not write the Constitution because he was serving as ambassador to France when it was written. I could dump a truckload of quotes on you from those who DID write the Constitution echoing those same views, they just weren’t as eloquent as Jefferson.

        Economic freedom lifted us from an agrarian backwater to the leading industrial power in the world in about 60 years, the most profound economic growth of any nation in history.

        Our current problems are not a result of free markets but of government interference in those markets. The housing bubble, and its crash, stem from the over-leveraging of mortgages only possible through Fannie and Freddie. By law, private banks reserve requirements would have prevented that lacking the FM’s ability to buy and sell mortgages.

        For 200 years, US home mortgages were among the safest investments in the world. It was not until the expansion of the FM’s in the 90’s when their reserve requirements were reduced to a fraction of a percent that such a bubble became possible. Certainly, private investors speculated in mortgages and fed the fire, but only government intrusion into the mortgage business made it possible.

        1. If you look, the percentage of loans you are referring to — known as the community investment act canard — is a small portion of the loans. But whatever your ideology, you’ve lost credibility if you suggest that less regulation would have prevented this collapse. That’s laughable on its face. You’ve been watching way too much Larry Kudlow.

          BTW, I think “promote the general welfare” is pretty clear, whatever it may lack in eloquence.

          1. Fannie-Mae and Freddie-Mac, government-created entities, caused the collapse in the housing market. Bush and McCain pushed for more oversight of these agencies, not less. The Democrats blocked the legislation in the Senate.

          2. The kind of interpretation you are giving the General Welfare clause negates the clear meaning of the rest of the document. It would be like telling your teenager you may go to the library, do your homework and come straight home and do anything else you want.

            There would be no point in listing those things for which Congress may lay taxes and then add a clause that says it can do anything it thinks is a good idea.

            That interpretation of the General Welfare clause tells me you are a totalitarian at heart and want no limits on the powers you can exercise if you can get 51% of the voters to go along with it.

            What happens next is what that video was about.

  3. “That interpretation of the General Welfare clause tells me you are a totalitarian at heart and want no limits on the powers you can exercise if you can get 51% of the voters to go along with it.”

    Yeah, I was thinking that after I outlaw home ownership and replace them with communes, I would eat your babies for lunch. Once I got 51% of folks to go along, of course.

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